While that may be true (I don't have figures in front of me), there are multiple things that can contribute to increased recorded strength of storms. First, the surface water temps in certain areas (such as the Gulf) -are- higher, which gives storms the ability to get to Cat4 or Cat5; but there's no relationship between those temps and what we think of as global warming. Also, we have much-improved ability to measure and view storms now -- our metrics have effectively gotten better changed. Was Rita a Cat5 storm (she was, at her peak) or a Cat3 storm (when she landed)? All depends on whether you're able to get that transient Cat5 reading at the right time in the right place.
We're looking through a very short-interval window, viewing the "noise" wiggles on a function (global weather patterns) that has multiple interacting earth-temperature cycles, some of which are significantly longer than recorded history. It's just silly (and IMO unscientific) to go around with such a short-term view of something as big and slow as the earth.
Sure, the "noise" is of concern to us -- we're living in it, and it affects us. But there's not a damn thing we can do to change global weather patterns, realistically.
Personally I think the earth -is- in a warming part of a cycle, though not due primarily to human activities. While reducing pollution and emissions is a nice goal, it's because the air will be more pleasant to breathe, not because it's going to make a perceptible difference in global weather. Thinking we have that much effect on Mother Nature -globally- is just so much arrogant p*ssing into the wind.
"Personally I think the earth -is- in a warming part of a cycle, though not due primarily to human activities. While reducing pollution and emissions is a nice goal, it's because the air will be more pleasant to breathe, not because it's going to make a perceptible difference in global weather. Thinking we have that much effect on Mother Nature -globally- is just so much arrogant p*ssing into the wind."
That is what I think also - and it makes the situation much worse than if we could control the global temperature.